A six-year trade dispute between the US and the European Union came to a head on Wednesday, when the Clinton administration slapped 100 percent tariffs on about $520 million worth of European exports to the US (with the notable exceptions of wine and Mercedes Benz cars.) The root of the quarrel is Europe's import rules for bananas, which Washington claims favor bananas from former Caribbean...

This week's In the News examines recent US government designs to sanction $568 million worth of European Union (EU) goods in response to the long-running "Banana Dispute." Trade delegates from the US, Ecuador, Guatamala, Honduras, and Mexico met on January 12, 1999 to ask the World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body (WTO DSB) to review the EU's new banana import and marketing regime,...

Starting this week, American gourmets may find the prices of imported goods such as Roquefort cheese, truffles, and goose pate skyrocketing, as the United States's stiff penalty tariff on European exports goes into effect. This week's In The News looks at looks at the history of, reasoning behind, and effects of these tariffs. In 1988, the European Union banned the import of US beef, citing that...